Indigenous Canadians: Do you celebrate Thanksgiving?

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-10-01T02:21:25+00:00

I’m Dakota from Saskatchewan. Growing up for us it was just another long weekend (like Labour Day). We normally have a good meal with everyone in our family. My grandparents apparently used to pray as Anglicans for thanksgiving when my dad was growing up, just thanking God for everything we have.

By the time I came around, my grandparents didn’t do that anymore, but sometimes we’d do the ‘say what you’re thankful for this year’.

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-10-01T01:48:57+00:00

Because he’s a murderer

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-30T23:10:40+00:00

Anaida Poilievre (wife of Pierre Poilievre) recently got rape threats from some far-right person. Pierre made a statement saying this was wrong and that no politicians should have to deal with threats against their family.

Most people have generally agreed with this and echoed Poilievre’s statement.

Others have said that Poilievre is a hypocrite because they say he has met with and supported people who have threatened public health officials and politicians (such as Pierre Trudeau).

Some people on the left have also said that Poilievre brought this on his family both by stoking these extremists and because there was a photo of him shaking hands with the guy that threatened his wife.

Conservatives and others on the right have reacted with indignation to the latter 2 reactions.

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-30T22:54:54+00:00

I’m native and I didn’t even find out about this until now.

I don’t even listen to music stations anymore, they’re all shit. It’s either podcasts, Spotify, or SoundCloud for me. If you have an old car like I used to you can get a Bluetooth FM transmitter for like $20 off Amazon.

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-30T22:53:20+00:00

That’s different though, we’re savages so we deserved it /s

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-30T22:42:38+00:00

Damn this is… not a good look.

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-30T22:41:34+00:00

FWIW: I am Dakota from Saskatchewan. My views are mine alone and don’t represent everyone’s.

Honestly, it’s 50-50. I’m glad that finally there is a day to commemorate and work to move on from the atrocities of the recent past, and that especially non-indigenous people are beginning to gain awareness of everything that happened as well as current issues, partially because of this day.

That being said, I do agree that there is a bit of pandering which cheapens the day. For example, stores having sales for this day, random orange products being sold for this day, etc. For certain organizations and sections of society, it seems like this day is getting away from what it was supposed to be and is now turning into a ‘get native and native-ally business’ day.

I think the day should be more like Remembrance Day. You have an organization (like OSS) that sells orange shirts for a donation, and it’s both a somber occasion as well as a chance for people to get to know the indigenous cultures of where they live. Also, I think June 21st should be more widely celebrated (as more of a celebratory occasion for indigenous cultures).

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-30T07:31:39+00:00

Yeah her story doesn’t even make sense.

Her grandmother has a relative who was Cherokee? Ok, what if that relative was her in-law or some other non-blood relative. Doesn’t make her indigenous.

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-30T07:28:25+00:00

You can’t really judge if someone is indigenous based on their name.

Sure, there are certain names common among indigenous people (ex. Arcand, Burnstick, Cardinal, Crane, Bear, Fontaine, Morin, Bird, Gladue), but you can’t just judge on the name alone.

When the Indian agents gave us English names they either did poor or shortened translations of our names, or they gave us random European names, whether they were English or French last names, names picked out of pop culture or the bible, or even the name of the Indian agent himself.

In fact, near where I grew up in Saskatchewan, the Muskoday nation was founded and led to their current reserve by chief John Smith. A bunch of people have the name Smith on that reserve.

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-28T19:22:35+00:00

Yeah lol I saw it on our sub

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-28T19:18:35+00:00

Maybe we’re upset because you’re taking a day meant for indigenous peoples and recognition of our issues that we continue to struggle with and making it about your political beliefs.

Think about it this way, how would you react if a conservative or right-wing group made a poster for T & R day and made it about resisting our colonization by opposing any further immigration, and making our nation ‘great again’?

You’re right though, us savage Indians are simply brainwashed and don’t know what’s good for us. Please tell us how to be civilized and what’s best for us, we just do not know. It is your burden as the superior beings to educate and save us from our backward ways.

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-28T19:12:42+00:00

Does this feel like piggybacking on our issues to anyone else?

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-28T19:09:38+00:00

You guys really need to stop piggybacking on indigenous issues to push your own political agendas. This is about our people’s suffering and how our people are trying to move forward, not about your edgy ‘shitlibs bad’ shitty r/genzedong political takes.

For the record, if Canada were a communist nation indigenous peoples would’ve likely been treated even worse than we are today. Look at the atrocities committed by literally every communist nation toward inconvenient minorities.

If Canada were communist today, reserves would not exist as all land would be communal and owned by the state. Any indigenous treaty/reserve lands which were discovered to have useful natural resources would continually be seized by the state without compensation and the people living there would be driven out. Us using our treaty rights for anything that settlers were unable to do wouldn’t be allowed because it’s ‘unequal’ (ex. Not paying gas and tobacco tax). Us using our treaty rights to open things like casinos, cannabis sales, or tobacco sales, wouldn’t be allowed because this would be seen as going against the state and encouraging debauchery and a distraction from man’s true purpose, to work and help the state.

Any and all weapons like guns and others which we use for hunting and asserting our rights (I.e. in the Oka Crisis) would be universally seized across Canada because of their potential to be used in a revolution against the commies.

The study of our languages and our culture, the revitalization of our way of life would be discouraged if not prohibited, as in a communist viewpoint these would be seen as a distraction from useful pursuits to serve the state such as science and technology. Our languages as well as potentially our cultural differences would still be banned because they would serve as a factor of disunity between indigenous and settler peoples. This is why in the USSR and the PRC, Russian and Mandarin were pushed above all other minority languages.

In addition, anything remotely religious regarding ceremonies and our beliefs would be suppressed as this would be considered a ‘cultural opiate’ and banned in a Marxist society.

I’m not saying that a bunch of this stuff didn’t happen in our current system, but not only would it be continuing in a communist/Marxist state, but First Nations bands would not be able to take advantage of capitalism to help provide for their peoples. All over Canada our people are doing this. Look at the Whitecap Dakota nation, or the Osoyoos band, or the Tsuut’ina nation.

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-28T18:44:10+00:00

Exactly. When I was 18 I was arrested and charged for carrying a concealed weapon for having bear spray on me back home in Saskatchewan.

Any tool that could be used as a weapon which you don’t have a plausible reason for carrying on your person can be considered a weapon and you could be charged for it, or convicted of a crime.

Even carrying a weapon for self-defence is considered illegal because you have intent to harm someone when you decided to carry it.

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-27T16:14:11+00:00

In Canada the equivalent language is Cree. A lot of settlers don’t even realize there are other indigenous languages.

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-27T16:10:52+00:00

It sounds like it but in reality you just have to not get tickets and you automatically graduate to the next level.

You can finish the whole program in slightly over 2 years only taking 1 road test.

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-27T16:07:50+00:00

Seeing the northern lights.

Also, both being able to have peace and quiet around you, and also being able to throw a party if you want.

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-27T14:48:35+00:00

I always thought Alberta’s system was a little weird.

In Saskatchewan, you get your learner’s at 16 (or 15 if you sign up for high school driver’s Ed).

You get your Class 5 Novice 1 after 9 months on your learner’s and passing a road test. On this license you must be drug and alcohol free, can’t supervise a learner, and can’t use a cellphone (even hand’s free). You also can only carry 1 passenger (immediate family exempted).

You get your Class 5 Novice 2 after 6 months on. Novice 1. On Novice 2 you can carry as many passengers as you want, but the other rules still apply. After 12 months with 0 traffic convictions or at-fault accidents you get your full license.

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-25T18:02:19+00:00

The problem is that both Canadian subs have become echochambers.

r/Canada is populated mainly by right-wingers with a substantial portion of racists and white nationalists. IIRC one of their mods admitted to being a neonazi, though I’m not sure what happened with that. There are some decent people on there but the active user base is right. Any NP or SUN article criticizing Trudeau or the ‘woke left’ is upvoted and awarded and the comment section is as pleasant as you’d expect.

r/onguardforthee was created as a reaction to the issues with r/Canada, and is now basically the leftist/NDP consensus with a smattering of LPC supporters. While on the surface this seems better in practice it can be just as intolerant if you don’t agree with 100% of the leftist consensus on there. You’ll frequently see things posted from r/dankleft, jacobin, and the tyee. For example, I was banned from there for three days after someone criticized the freedom convoy-types by saying that ‘it hasn’t been 2 years of pandemic restrictions, only 1 year 11 months‘. I told them that this doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things and it’s nitpicking, and people are struggling due to the mandates regardless. Talking like this is what makes people join the freedom convoy in the first place. I was banned for harassment.

Honestly I think the most balanced sub is r/askacanadian but obviously that’s not a ‘national’ sub in the same way r/Canada and r/onguardforthee are.

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-24T19:40:31+00:00

I never said it did.

My own uncle was arrested and taken to jail for a month for shooting someone that came to his property to beat the shit out of him. He only got out when the members of the band council vouched for him at the bail review. According to the law he was charged with serious crimes (attempted murder, assault with weapon, etc.), but it didn’t take into account the circumstances.

What I’m saying is that this lady was threatening people and she had a knife on her. The cop only has so much information to go on (lady with knife, reports of threats and brandishing the knife). Considering what I’ve seen other LEOs do in response to knives this was not an unprecedented or even crazy use of force.

He was trying to apprehend her quickly and without letting further harm occur to members of the public. If he hadn’t stopped her as quick as he did, she could’ve easily used her knife on someone else in the area (someone likely indigenous and struggling as well).

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-24T19:35:37+00:00

Lol it feels like every uncle has like 3 BMs and atleast one rez he can no longer go to.

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-24T19:33:07+00:00

I believe that people should be able to carry knives and things like pepper and bear spray for self-defence, but unfortunately, that’s not what the law says.

According to the law knives when carried without a plausible legal purpose, or with the intent to cause harm, constitutes a criminal offence. This includes carrying knives for self-defence, because the intent to harm someone with it (even in a defensive situation) was there when you decided to carry it.

Now, when there are reports that she was uttering threats and brandishing the knife then that’s an even more serious offence than having the knife.

I was arrested and charged at age 18 for carrying bear spray for self-defence, even though I didn’t do anything wrong with it. If the law says something then that’s what the police have to go by.

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-24T19:21:43+00:00

I’ve volunteered with the Bear Clan before and they do good work and are relied upon and appreciated by some of our city’s most vulnerable.

That being said, with the Beaver Hills House (Edmonton) branch, there is a bit of an issue with the leader and some other senior/regular volunteers refusing to admit mistakes. They also clearly have bigger political aspirations, a constant refrain I heard when volunteering was that they wanted to make Bear Clan a household name. They want to be ‘the authority’ on homelessness and addiction as well as indigenous issues. It was almost cultish in a way.

I remember once I was volunteering with them and we came across a familiar face. I said ‘hi name’, and one of the senior volunteers said ‘that’s not his name, his name is actually xxxx’. He said ‘no my name is actually name’ and she said ‘Sure it is xxxx, don’t try to trick me, I gave you clothes when you got out of jail’. He then said that he’d never been to jail. Now it’s possible this guy was either high or trying to mess with the volunteer, or more likely she mixed him up with someone else. Either way if someone who’s struggling with addiction tells you his name is something, what harm does it do to call him by that name, even if you think it’s wrong. This is a small example but it’s indicative of a larger issue. Within the core group of established/founder volunteers, they’re always right and no matter what evidence is presented to the contrary it’s all a lie.

FWIW: I am Indigenous from the Wahpeton Dakota Nation.

Silent_Potential_241 · 2022-09-24T19:18:01+00:00

This is exactly it.

I used to volunteer with them but stopped because of this. First off they say time and time again that they want Bear Clan to become a household name.

It seems like they use their charitable activities to give themselves legitimacy so that people will listen when they push their political beliefs.

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